It’s Time to Get Real About Racial Diversity in Comics; Wired.com, 7/25/15

Laura Hudson, Wired.com; It’s Time to Get Real About Racial Diversity in Comics:

"Like virtually every other form of entertainment, the world of comic books has been increasingly grappling with issues of diversity especially over the last several years as social media and Internet platforms have amplified the voices of minority creators and critics. And in many ways, there’s been a sea change. “Diversity of every sort—racial diversity, gender diversity, acknowledging minority sexualities—is experiencing an explosion of recognition and representation in comics,” says C. Spike Trotman, creator of the long-running webcomic Templar, Arizona.

But as the faces on the pages popular comic books have steadily grown more diverse, the hiring practices of publishers haven’t necessarily kept pace. While there are certainly more minority creators earning bylines than there were a decade ago, the editors and creators of mainstream comics remain overwhelmingly Caucasian—a demographic imbalance that has sparked increasingly loud discussions about what diversity really means and where it matters."

At Comic-Con, Bring Out Your Fantasy and Fuel the Culture; New York Times, 7/15/15

A.O. Scott, New York Times; At Comic-Con, Bring Out Your Fantasy and Fuel the Culture:

"The deeper mythology of Comic-Con is that fans and creators are joined in communion, sharing in the holy work of imagination. The logic of popular culture today suggests that every fan is also an artist. This is literally true in the blossoming fields of fan art and fan fiction, in which devotees of intellectual properties (the ubiquitous San Diego shorthand for books, comics, movies and shows) make their own images and stories involving their favorite characters. Cosplay is a live-action form of fan art, or maybe fan nonfiction, and the owners of the intellectual property rights are careful not to interfere too much.

The organizers of Comic-Con, meanwhile, provide encouragement for fans who dream of professionalizing their passions. A smattering of panels offered advice on how to pitch an idea, how to market a product, how to make a living in a crowded marketplace. Social media and digital technology encourage the fantasy that everyone can make stuff and put it out there for everyone else.

Or maybe it isn’t a fantasy. The world of popular culture only gets bigger, and as it does it grows more diverse, more inclusive and more confounding."